Japanese Word Thread

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Re: Japanese Word Thread

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keshigomu: eraser
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Re: Japanese Word Thread

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wakaru: verb for to understand
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Re: Japanese Word Thread

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I feel like doing something a bit different so I'm going to take some time off from posting random words to explain the basics of Japanese verb conjugation.

Japanese Verbs: The Dictionary Form
The most basic form of any Japanese verb is the "dictionary" form (so called because it's the form listed in the dictionary), which is the non-past (i.e. present) non-negative (i.e. positive) informal (i.e. casual and not overly polite) tense.

Dictionary form verbs can be further divided into three classes based on the way they're conjugated (note that these classes aren't "official" they're just the way some textbooks divide up Japanese verbs).

Class 1 comprises the vast majority of Japanese verbs. They're comprised of a base with a u based sound at the end. Example verbs include kaku (to write), ikku (to go), and tsukau (to use).

Class 2 verbs are comprised of a base with a ru sound at the end. Note that some Class 1 verbs also end in ru. The general rule is that if the base of the verb ends in an i or e sound followed by ru it's Class 2 while if it ends with any other sound followed by ru it's Class 1 (iru and eru verbs that are Class 1 as well). Example verbs include taberu (to eat), miru (to see or watch), and kiru (to wear or put on).

Class 3 verbs are verbs that don't fall into either catagory. There's only two of them, suru (to do) and kuru (to come).
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Re: Japanese Word Thread

Post by Silver »

Verb conjugations, very useful... so by the way, is it possible for you to type in kanji? I'd really like to learn a bit more of those, especially for words that can be written more than one way. In other news, here's a word.

ika: squid
"Irregardless" and "Over exaggerated" are NEVER CORRECT EVER because they are redundant
Regardless means "without regard", and adding "ir" on the front actually makes it a double negative; exaggerate means "to overstate" so you're literally saying "over overstate."
Example: I can not exaggerate the importance of this fact enough, regardless of how often people ignore it.
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Re: Japanese Word Thread

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I can type in kanji, but I'm not sure if it'll display properly for you. I'll give it a try this post and you can let me know if it works.

Japanese Verbs: The -masu Form
The -masu form is the polite version of the dictionary form. So it's the non-past, non-negative, formal/polite form of the verb (note that there's actually some even more polite forms but they're pretty advanced (I don't even know most of them) so I won't be covering them here).

Class 1 Verbs: To convert a dictionary verb to a -masu verb, convert the u sound at the end to the equivalent i sound (u = i, ku = ki, su = shi, etc) then add -masu to the end. So kaku 書く becomes kakimasu 書きます and tsukau 使う becomes tsukaimasu 使います.

Class 2 verbs: Drop the ru at the end and add -masu. So taberu 食べる becomes tabemasu 食べます and miru 見る becomes mimasu 見ます.

Class 3 verbs: No need for a rule since there's only two verbs in this class. suru する becomes shimasu します and kuru 来る becomes kimasu 来ます.
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Re: Japanese Word Thread

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Japanese Verbs: The -nai Form
The -nai form is the non-past, negative, informal form.

Class 1 Verbs: To convert a dictionary verb to a -nai verb change the u sound at the end to the equivalent a sound (u = a, ku = ka, su = sa, etc) then add -nai to the end. So wakaru 分かる (to understand) becomes wakaranai 分からない and kau 買う (to buy) become kaanai 買あない.

Class 2 Verbs: Drop the ru at the end and add -nai. So kiru 着る becomes kinai 着ない and miru 見る becomes minai 見ない.

Class 3 Verbs: suru する become shinai しない and kuru 来る becomes kinai 来ない.
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Re: Japanese Word Thread

Post by Silver »

All kana and kanji are displaying fine on my end. Thanks! It's definitely just kanji and general grammar that I have trouble with, so stuff like this really helps.

okama: drag queen
"Irregardless" and "Over exaggerated" are NEVER CORRECT EVER because they are redundant
Regardless means "without regard", and adding "ir" on the front actually makes it a double negative; exaggerate means "to overstate" so you're literally saying "over overstate."
Example: I can not exaggerate the importance of this fact enough, regardless of how often people ignore it.
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Re: Japanese Word Thread

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In my opinion the hardest things when learning Japanese are (in no particular order):

1. Kanji (there's just too many of them and nearly all have multiple meanings and pronunciations)
2. Counting objects (too many counter suffixs, even Japanese people have trouble with them)
3. Politeness levels (sure it's fine if you just stick to basic formal and informal speech but when you start adding in all the other politeness levels it gets insane)
4. Memorizing lots and lots of volcabulary (for every word you learn there's at least a 100 you don't know).

As this point I'm a little rusty on grammar (haven't had a lot of time to study this year) but I've learned most of the rules. My problems are kanji (once again, a little rusty due to lack of time to study but I've learned between 200 and 300 out of around 2000) and general volcabulary (it's fairly good on some subjects, virtually non-existant on others). I really to just try and work my way through some Japanese manga or video games for practice but I just haven't had the time. Actually, these verb lessons are a good review for me. Maybe I'll do some more grammar once they're done...
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Re: Japanese Word Thread

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Japanese Verbs: The -masen Form
The -masen form is the formal version of the -nai form. So it's the non-past, negative, formal form.

For all classes of verbs, the -masen form is conjugated exactly like the -masu form, the only difference being that you add -masen to the end of the verbs instead of masu. A few examples are as follows.

Class 1 Verbs: wakaru 分かる becomes wakarimasen 分かりません and uru 売る (to sell) becomes urimasen 売りません.

Class 2 Verbs: taberu 食べる becomes tabemasen 食べません and kiru 着る becomes kimasen 着ません.

Class 3 Verbs: suru する becomes shimasen しません and kuru 来る becomes kimasen 来ません.
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Re: Japanese Word Thread

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Japanese Verbs: The -ta Form
The -ta form is the past, non-negative, non-formal form.

Class 1 Verbs: Forming the -ta form is a little tricky. First, look at which u sound the verb ends with then use the following list to replace that u sound with the appropriate ta or da sound.
u, tsu, ru = tta So kau 買う becomes katta 買った.
bu, mu, nu = nnda So yomu 読む becomes yonnda 読んだ.
ku = ita So kaku 書く becomes kaita 書いた.
gu = ida So oyogu (to swim) 泳ぐ becomes oyoida 泳いだ.
su = shi-ta So hanasu (to speak) 話す hanashi-ta 話した.
The one exception is ikku 行く which becomes itta 行った.

Class 2 Verbs: Just drop the ru at the end and add ta. So taberu 食べる becomes tabeta 食べた.

Class 3 Verbs: suru する becomes shi-ta した and kuru 来る become kita 来た.
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Re: Japanese Word Thread

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Japanese Verbs: The -mashi-ta form
((As always, ignore that dash between the i and the ta, it's just there to get around the language filter.))
The mashi-ta form polite version of the -ta form. So it's the past, non-negative, formal form.

For all classes of verbs, the -mashi-ta form is conjugated exactly like the -masu form, the only difference being that you add -mashi-ta to the end of the verbs instead of -masu. A few examples are as follows.

Class 1 Verbs: kau 買う becomes kaimashi-ta 買いました and iku 行く becomes ikimashi-ta 行きました.

Class 2 Verbs: taberu 食べる becomes tabemashi-ta 食べました and miru 見る becomes mimashi-ta 見ました.

Class 3: suru する becomes shimashi-ta しました and kuru 来る becomes kimashi-ta 来ました.
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Re: Japanese Word Thread

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Japanese Verbs: The -nakatta Form
The -nakatta form is the past, negative, non-formal form.

Class 1 Verbs: It's created just like the -nai form, except that you add -nakatta instead of -nai. So kau 買う becomes kaanakatta 買うなかった and wakaru 分かる becomes wakaranakatta 分からなかった.

Class 2 Verbs: Drop the ru at the end and add -nakatta. So kiru 着る becomes kinakatta 着なかった and taberu 食べる becomes tabenakatta 食べなかった.

Class 3 Verbs: suru する becomes shinakatta しなかった and kuru 来る becomes konakatta 来なかった.
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Re: Japanese Word Thread

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((I don't have a lot of time right now so here's a quick easy one.))

Japanese Verb Forms: The -te Form
The -te form isn't past/non-past, formal/non-formal, or any of that. Instead, it's used in certain grammatical structures where verbs are attached to other words such as when asking someone to do something or asking if someone has ever done something. If I decide to go more in-depth on Japanese grammar after finishing with verb conjugations, I'll explain some of those structures then. For now, here's how to create the -te form.

For all three classes of verbs, the -te form is indentical to the -ta form, except that the -ta or -da is replaced with -te or -de respectively.
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Re: Japanese Word Thread

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Japanese Verb Forms: The -masendeshi-ta Form
The -masendeshi-ta form is the polite version of the -nakatta form. So it's the past, negative, formal form.

For all three classes of verbs, it's formed exactly like the -masen form, except that you add -masendeshi-ta instead of just -masen.


And that covers all the base verb conjugations. Over the next few days I'll go over some variations and additional verb issues.
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Re: Japanese Word Thread

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Before I do more grammar, here's a couple of very useful verbs to know (in their dictionary form).

aru ある: to exist (non-living things)

iru いる: to exist (living things (people, animals, etc))
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